Thursday, May 13, 2004

A Slip Is Showing Beneath a Hemline

The National Organization for Women lost its credibility in the 1990s when it failed to support several conservative women (Paula Jones for one) who had been sexually or otherwise harassed by Bill Clinton and a couple other liberal politicians. NOW leadership was shown to be hypocritical. Protection of their political base...of the political leaders of their party... turned out to be a higher priority than standing behind their professed beliefs and values. NOW has rightfully faded in influence and regard. It's now a largely-irrelevant minor political splinter group.

Likewise, Evangelical Christians have failed to protest the extraordinary abuse, sexual perversions and extreme violence...the blatant disrespect for their God-created fellow man....obviously caused by the attitudes and atmosphere emanating from the highest levels of leadership. (Some have tried to pin it all on a handful of twentysomethings who they apparently believe packed digital cameras and dog leashes in anticipation of perversions while on duty.)

The National Council of Churches, comprised of 36 mainline Prostestant denominations, and the Catholic Church have publicly decried these gross departures from behavior promulgated by Christianity and the Bible. We know where Jewish congregations fall on the issue of horrific prisons and concentration camps.

Evangelicals remain silent. It whiffs suspiciously of protection of their political base...of leaders of their political party... as a priority over standing behind their professed Christian beliefs and values. I've heard a few Evangelicals pass off the abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanemo as just politics...doesn't really fall under the religious realm.

Wrong. Ignoring it falls under the political realm. Just ask NOW. Just ask Germans who remained silent while Nazis built and run their prison camps.

I, for one, am disappointed. The richness and heartfelt deepness, the consistency of the moral high-road taken taken by Evangelical Christians has been inspiring over recent decades. It's caused us to take a fresh look at the so-called "separation of church and state" doctrine that handicaps our country. It's given us moral clarity on the subjects of abortion and homosexuality. Evangelicals have played an important part in the national dialogue.

But sadly, Evangelical Christians are showing their political colors rather than their moral indignation. Their slip of hypocrisy is showing beneath the hemline of their dress.